Starting a club at school, BSGE especially, may seem like something quite difficult to do. In fact, it might sound impossible or ever not allowed. Well, the fact is quite to the contrary. Starting a club comes in five simple steps, which I will share with you, having co-founded the school’s first Video Game Club, which will be running again this year.
• The first thing one has to do to start a school club is make a plan. When founding the Video Game Club, Danny Alvarez and I were sure to have ready justifications for the founding the club, as well as a general plan of how to club could run. This was of course before we would consult Ms. Johnson in order to officially found the club. This tends to be one of the hardest parts, as it is where all the thinking is done in coordinating your new club. When creating the VGC, the acronym for the Video Game Club, Danny and I sat down to figure out where the consoles and games would come from, how to recruit members, and what rules and regulations would apply to the club. Having completed this step with one or two bumps in the road, Danny and I were on our way to the next step in the process.
• The next and last step before consulting Ms. Johnson about officially founding the club was to find a supervisor. Every club, or all of those that may be founded in the future, need a supervisor from the BSGE staff to oversee the functioning of the club and to be there when it functions, etc. As with the VGC, for those of you who do not know, Mr. Laskowski was glad to supervise. Once you have your supervisor, you may move onto the next step.
• Your meeting with Ms. Johnson, be it short or long, is where you really need to justify why you are forming this club. When it came to the VGC, we told Ms. Johnson that there needed to be a place after school where students could relieve themselves of thoughts of school and relax for two hours before going home to do more work. She understood completely and allowed the club to pass her inspection. Remember that this step should not scare anyone. Ms. Johnson is very understanding, and given a less hectic schedule, she will meet with you when she can. Your case should not be taken lightly, your will have a good reason for the club, a week of the day to meet (given weekly meetings), and hours, as well as other information pertaining to whatever club you want to found. Once you are given the confirmation from the principal, you are ready to move onto step 4, but mind you, this step may take longer than expected if there is some detail not to Ms. Johnson’s liking, which may need changing and confirming at a latter date.
• Once everything is ready to go, you begin your recruiting step. This might the best step, but it also might be the worst. This is where your club may get the bump or the “crush.” Do not get discouraged, though, the common minimum for attendance is usually about 10 students, which should not be too difficult. This step usually takes a decent amount of advertisement. Posters work rather well, and the occasional announcement from Ms. Johnson draws some attention too. Your first meeting (explained further in Step 5) is where you get to see how many people take to your club favorably. Sometimes, response to your club might high, and would require you to cut down on the number of applicants because your club has a limit to the number of members. In this case, consider some sort of application process to distinguish between people who belong and those who might be better somewhere else. Once you have enough members, the last step is ready to be pursued.
• This last step is really more of the commencement of the club. It starts with the first day of the club, and hopefully never ends. I am happy to say that the Video Game Club survived summer vacation and should be starting up sometime soon for its second year. The key to your club surviving is to keep the members engaged by having fun or interesting activities. Sometimes in order to refresh the club something new might have to be added, or something changed. At the VGC, the Gamecube worked well, but the club experience was enhanced once we had to Wii.
In short, it may not be the easiest undertaking when trying to found a club at school, but with a little perseverance you will find that is worth it down the road. With the founding of a club (which also looks great on a college application, by the way) you will be able to add some substance to a somewhat lacking school environment.